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2008-02-05 issue:

Teachers consider the power of electronic culture

by Anna Groff

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Over six hundred teachers in Mennonite schools explored the positive and negative influence of technology at the Mennonite Educators Conference Jan. 31.-Feb. 2.



Speaker Shane Hipps. Photo by Anna Groff.

The conference met in Pittsburgh addressed the theme: “Discipleship in the Digital Age: Forming Followers of Jesus in a Hyper-Media Culture.”

At the opening session, Shane Hipps, keynote presenter, told the group of educators they have the ability to anticipate the future and power of electronic culture, just as educator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan did in the 1960s.

Hipps, pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church, Phoenix, Ariz., was a strategic planner in advertising for Porsche before he followed his call to pastor.

While the call of educators is to “shape minds and souls of humans,” technology shapes people—sometimes working for and sometimes against educators.

Hipps did not call for ending the use of technology, but stressed McLuhan’s phrase “the medium is the message.” We must acknowledge everything is an extension of ourselves, so we do not become slaves to technology, he said.

Diane Zaerr Brenneman, pastor and educator, and John J. Miller, music and drama teacher at Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite School, lead worship at the conference.

The conference is a partnership of Mennonite Education Agency and Mennonite Schools Council.

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